The total units of digital cameras sold in 2023 is about 120 million units sold.
(source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1172711/forecast-of-digital-camera-sales-volume)
Even with a 1% to 2% market share, Leica, OMDS, Pentax and a few others can still survive.
1% of market share is 1,200,000 units of cameras. And OMDS main camera sales in 2023 is their flagship model OM-1 with a little bit of OM-5 and TG-7.
With a average sales price of $2000, that is $2.4 billion of sales revenue!
Otherwise JIP would not be interested to pump in money to invest.
And if it is not breaking even, JIP would have pulled the trigger 2 years ago instead of letting OMDS develop new products.
Olympus is forced to sell off the Imaging Division because based on its overall corporate policy, it cannot retrenched redundant workers when sales volume drop. When JIP took over, it changed the method of production to outsourced batch manufacturing. This means that as products like the EM-5 are all being sold, then OMDS manufacture the OM-5. In the meantime, it does not have to keep a huge labour force.
(source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1172711/forecast-of-digital-camera-sales-volume)
Even with a 1% to 2% market share, Leica, OMDS, Pentax and a few others can still survive.
1% of market share is 1,200,000 units of cameras. And OMDS main camera sales in 2023 is their flagship model OM-1 with a little bit of OM-5 and TG-7.
With a average sales price of $2000, that is $2.4 billion of sales revenue!
Otherwise JIP would not be interested to pump in money to invest.
And if it is not breaking even, JIP would have pulled the trigger 2 years ago instead of letting OMDS develop new products.
Olympus is forced to sell off the Imaging Division because based on its overall corporate policy, it cannot retrenched redundant workers when sales volume drop. When JIP took over, it changed the method of production to outsourced batch manufacturing. This means that as products like the EM-5 are all being sold, then OMDS manufacture the OM-5. In the meantime, it does not have to keep a huge labour force.
The future of MFT depends on whether OMDS and Panasonic can sell enough MFT cameras/lenses to break even.
If both continue to lose mountains of money each year.
Their continued survival is reliant on the sense of charity of their parent companies.
Panasonic has a (so far) indulgent and doting parent company.
OMDS parent company is JIP who are by nature Accountants (bean counters).
Bean counters are NOT forgiving when huge losses are made year after year.
The ex-Olympus Camera Division already has its head proverbially chopped off.
For making terrible losses by insisting on MFT.
In both cases of OMDS & Panasonic Camera Division, the CEOs will not stick to MFT - if the huge losses (probably hundreds of millions) came out of their own pocket/bank account.
But they are happy to lose OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.